Strong Industrial Odors

Residents in South Portland and Portland have often described strong neighborhood odors for years. These smells were frequently described as industrial in nature; given the large oil storage tanks nearby, local and state governments have been working to gauge the severity of the problem.

These cities have tracked thousands online smell complaints for this issue, logging the date, location, odor descriptions, and personal symptoms. You can visually explore this data for yourself below.

[INSERT COMPLAINT MAP HERE]

What does it smell like?

Throughout thousands of complaints, several descriptions of the local smells are repeated often: "petroleum", "tar", "oil", "asphalt", "sulfur", "gas". Hundreds of the complaints also mention feeling nausea, throat irritation, and headaches.

[AARON WILL PUT A GRAPHIC HERE TO DESCRIBE THE ODORS AND/OR SYMPTOMS]

Where and when do the smells occur?

The smells are reported most frequently along South Portland's northern coastline and throughout Portland's West End. There is a strong seasonal component to the complaints, which increase in the summer with higher temperatures.

The smells appear to correlate strongly with wind direction in some places. Inside Portland's West End, odor complaints are much likelier on days the wind is blowing from the south - i.e., the direction of South Portland's oil storage tanks. See the histogram below, which displays the average number of daily complaints in the West End when the wind is blowing from each direction. The complaints clearly spike when wind blows from the south.